A research team has developed a new model, PlantIF, that addresses one of the most pressing challenges in agriculture: the accurate and timely diagnosis of plant diseases.

Researchers find that diversifying crops and integrating livestock improves farm efficiencies and ecosystem services in the US Midwest. 

Penn geophysicists Hugo Ulloa and Douglas Jerolmack and colleagues have uncovered Earth-sculpting processes that result from the formation of snowball-like aggregates they call “sandballs” that take on two shapes: peanut-shaped structures with liquid cores and stable, donut-shapes—with airy centers—that behave like rigid solids. Their findings provide fundamental insights into erosion and will broaden scientific understandings of landscape change, soil loss, and agriculture.

A land-based Benizake (sockeye salmon) aquaculture project in Fukushima—jointly led by Okayama University of Science, NTT East, and local retailer Ichii Inc.—is moving from pilot operations toward full-scale commercialization in Namie Town after being selected for a national subsidy program supporting recovery and job creation in areas affected by the 2011 disaster. About 1,500 fish are currently being raised in a 20-ton tank, with initial shipments expected after next summer and a new facility targeted for completion by 2026.

Wildfires may disappear from the landscape within weeks, but their hidden effects on the soil can persist for decades. An international research team led by the University of Göttingen, together with partners in Tübingen, Berlin and Chile, has shown how wildfires in humid temperate rainforests and mediterranean woodlands of central Chile lead to very different pathways of soil recovery and ecosystem resilience. The study shows that soil structure and nutrients continue to change for more than a decade after a fire. The results were published in the journal Catena.

 

Fungal denitrification play a key role in the regulation of nitrogen cycle. Knowledge of the fungal denitrification of soil microbes and the driving mechanisms will be essential to understand the impact of soil N₂O emissions in the karst region. This study demonstrates that soil fungal nirK-derived N₂O in the karst region are significantly distinct between cropland and forest, soil NO₃^‒-N and sand are important drivers of the soil N₂O emissions variation, especially after vegetation restoration. The researchers’ finding appeared September 9, 2025 in Soil Ecology Letters.

The ecosystem of tropical coral islands is relatively isolated, characterized by harsh environmental conditions. It is frequently subjected to climatic stressors such as high temperatures, intense solar radiation, high salinity, and seasonal drought.